Biography

I am currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Keele University. I received my PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Delaware, U.S.A.,in 2000. My PhD research was in thin-film fluid dynamics in the drainage of foams (supervisor: Dr. Richard Braun). My professional experience includes a Welcome Trust supported postdoctoral position in the Center for Mathematical Medicine at the University of Nottingham (2001-2004) and lectureships held at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2000-2001), Heriot-Watt University (2004-2006) and the University of Nottingham (2006).

Research and scholarship

My research interests lie in continuum mechanics of problems related to industry, biology and physiology, and specifically, problems involving strong fluid-structure interaction and free boundaries. I am interested in mathematical modelling and in using asymptotic and numerical techniques to solve these problems. I have investigated problems in pulmonary mechanics involving lung airway reopening, cough manoeuvres and mucus transport, surfactant effects in thin-film fluid dynamics such as in drop spreading and foam drainage.

I am currently involved in the mathematical modelling of in vitro/in vivo tissue engineering with researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology at Keele and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry. Projects related to this have been internally funded by the 3ME- Bridging the Gaps initiative between EPSAM and ISTM.

I currently supervise 3 PhD students:

1. Ghanim Algwauish (4th year) - Modelling the viscoplastic behaviour of lava domes and their evolution using mathematical and numerical methods.
2. Kelly Campbell (3rd year; jointly with Dr Jan-Herman Kuiper from ISTM and RJAH Hospital) - Mathematical modelling of cartilage and osteo-chondral regeneration using cell therapy.
3. Hani Alahmadi (2nd year) - Gravity-driven drainage in thin viscous non-Newtonian and non-isothermal free surface flows.

Past PhD students:

1. Joe Goddard (2014) - Fingering instabilities in gravity and surfactant-related thin film flows.
2. Abdulghani Alharbi (2016) - Numerical solution of thin-film flow equations using adaptive moving mesh methods.

Teaching

• MAT-20008: Differential Equations

• MAT-20016: Mathematical Modelling

Admin roles

I am currently the Postgraduate Research Director of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Research themes

• Fluid Dynamics and Acoustics
• Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering